Police: 6 arrested for shooting out 100 windows

By Sandra Yi and Pat Reavy |
Posted - Feb 16th, 2013 @ 10:36pm

KEARNS — Police have arrested six people for a crime spree that spanned across three cities that amounted to tens of thousands of dollars in damage.

Around 10:30 p.m. Friday night, police began receiving calls of car and home windows being blown out with a BB gun.

The calls came in from across a 20-square mile area west of Bangerter, throughout which more than 100 windows were shattered. Police estimated the damages would cost between $40,000 and $50,000 total.

In West Valley, police said they received 40 to 50 reports of shattered windows; in Kearns, another 40 or so reports came through; and in West Jordan, about 10 were reported.

Some of the victims led police to the alleged vandals: 18-year-old Curtis Ellefsen, 19-year-old Ricardo Vega and four juveniles.

Ellefsen and Vega were each booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of felony criminal mischief. The three 17-year-olds and one 16-year-old were arrested and booked into juvenile detention.

Unified police detective Ken Hansen said four to five BB guns were also recovered.

Police said a witness saw the six vandalizing the area and called police with a vehicle description.

"I think it was just a group of young adults and juveniles having their version of a good time," said West Valley Police Department Lieutenant Michael Coleman. "Unfortunately, it cost a lot of other people a lot of money."

One victim, Maryan, of West Valley, expects to pay $120 for the damage to her car. Other car repairs she had planned to do will now have to wait, she said.

"It's going to cost a lot of money because insurance isn't going to fix less than $500, and I have to fix it myself," Maryan said.

She said the arrests give her some peace of mind.

"I'm glad those who do bad things have been arrested, and I'm glad (police) are doing good things," she said.